Housing device for hand-held electronic product

ABSTRACT

A housing device for a hand-held electronic product includes a housing having a first sliding member formed on each of two lateral sides thereon and at least one positioning structure formed on the housing; and a cover mounted to the housing, the cover including a second sliding member formed on each of two lateral sides thereof to cooperate with one of the first sliding members of the housing such that the cover can slide back and forth to be opened or closed with respect to the housing, and at least one positioning member formed on an inner face of the cover and engaged with the positioning structure of the housing. The housing device has a simplified structure and reduced fabrication cost, and also provides stable and smooth opening or closing of the cover with respect to the housing, as well as can be easily assembled.

PRIOR APPLICATION DATA

The present application claims priority from prior Tiawanese application number 092222908 filed Dec. 30, 2003.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to housing devices, and more particularly, to a housing device applied to a hand-held electronic product.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Storage media are applicable to many systems such as a multimedia system, communication system, computer system, network system, or other systems to store data in a digital form and also provide access and transmission of the stored data. In order to satisfy the users' demand of light-weight and small-profile devices, there have been developed plenty of storage media having relatively larger capacity, faster access speed and more compact size, for example, flash disk or mobile disk.

Generally, a storage medium is embedded in a housing device, wherein a slide member is mounted between a housing and a cover of the housing device. The slide member should provide a smooth sliding movement and a properly positioning ability so as to receive and position the storage medium in a freely sliding manner within the housing device, such that the storage medium combined with the housing device form a hand-held electronic product for a user.

However, the above conventional technology requires an additional component (i.e. the slide member) between the housing and the cover to form the housing device for the hand-held electronic product and to receive and position the storage medium in a freely sliding manner within the housing device. Since the slide member does not have a stable structure and cannot provide a sufficiently large support area, the effects of smooth sliding and proper positioning cannot be satisfactorily achieved.

Moreover, in order for effectively positioning, the slide member must be connected respectively to the housing and the cover, which makes its structure more complicated. And the complicated positioning structure of the slide member would undesirably increase the fabrication cost. Thus, such conventional housing device not only has a complicated structure and thus reduces its structural strength, but also is apt to be damaged and is not easy to be assembled. Further, the conventional housing device is cost-ineffectively to fabricate and causes increase in the overall cost thereof.

Therefore, the problem to be solved here is to provide a housing device for a hand-held electronic product, which can resolve the above drawbacks in the prior art such as the complicated structure, insufficient support area, difficult assembly, and high fabrication cost, etc.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In light of the above drawbacks in the prior art, a primary objective of the present invention is to provide a structurally simplified housing device for a hand-held electronic product.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a cost-effectively fabricated housing device for a hand-held electronic product.

Still another objective of the present invention is to provide a housing device for a hand-held electronic product, which can smoothly slide to open and close by its specified structure.

A further objective of the present invention is to provide an easily assembled housing device for a hand-held electronic product.

In accordance with the above and other objectives, the present invention proposes a housing device for a hand-held electronic product, comprising: a housing, which comprises a first sliding member formed on each of two lateral sides thereof, and at least one positioning structure formed on the housing; and a cover mounted to the housing, wherein a second sliding member is formed on each of two lateral sides of the cover and cooperates with one of the first sliding members of the housing, such that the cover can be opened or closed by sliding with respect to the housing, and wherein at least one positioning member is formed on an inner surface of the cover and is engaged with the positioning structure of the housing, such that the cover can be positioned and opened or closed by sliding on the housing.

Since the first sliding members are integrally formed on the two lateral sides of the housing, and similarly the second sliding members are integrally formed on the two lateral sides of the cover, the first sliding members correspondingly cooperate with the second sliding members to allow the cover to be opened or closed by sliding with respect to the housing. This does not require any additional third structure, and thus can simplify the structure and reduce the fabrication cost of the housing device.

Further, since the positioning structure is integrally formed with the housing, and similarly the positioning member is integrally formed on the inner surface of the cover, the positioning structure is engaged with the positioning member to position the cover on the housing. This can similarly simplify the structure and reduce the fabrication cost of the housing device. Accordingly, the housing device having such specified structure can be opened or closed by sliding the cover with respect to the housing.

Moreover, there is sufficiently large contact area between the first sliding members of the housing and the second sliding members of the cover, and the positioning member of the cover abuts against the positioning structure of the housing, such that the cover can smoothly slide and achieve a better sliding effect.

Therefore, the housing device for a hand-held electronic product according to the present invention provides a simplified structure, reduced fabrication cost, and better sliding effect, thereby resolving the drawbacks in the prior art such as complicated structure, insufficient support area, and high fabrication cost, etc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, with reference made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a housing device for a hand-held electronic product in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded cross-sectional view of the housing device in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an assembled cross-sectional view of the housing device in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4A is a schematic diagram showing opening of a cover of the housing device in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram showing closing of the cover of the housing device in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing forces applied to the cover of the housing device in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIGS. 1 and 2 respectively show an exploded perspective view and an exploded cross-sectional view of a housing device for a hand-held electronic product in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the housing device comprises a housing 1 and a cover 2 mounted to the housing 1.

A first sliding member 11 is formed on each of two opposite lateral sides of the housing 1, wherein the first sliding member 11 can be a guiding slot. A cross-sectional view of the cover 2 generally has an inverted U shape, wherein a second sliding member 21 is formed on each of two lateral sides of the cover 2, and preferably, the second sliding members 21 are formed at two lower edges of the lateral sides of the cover 2 respectively. The second sliding member 21 can be a slide rail. The second sliding members 21 of the cover 2 are made corresponding to the first sliding members 11 of the housing 1 respectively, such that the second sliding members (or slide rails) 21 can be engaged with the first sliding members (or guiding slots) 11, as shown in FIG. 3. Thereby, the cover 2 can be opened or closed by sliding with respect to the housing 1, as shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B.

A positioning structure 12 is formed at each of two upper comers adjacent to the two lateral sides of the housing 1, wherein the positioning structure 12 can be a slanted surface, and two positioning surfaces 12 a are provided respectively at two ends of the slanted surface. A positioning member 22, such as a protrusion, is formed on an inner surface of the cover 2 at a position corresponding to each of the positioning structures 12. The positioning members 22 of the cover 2 can be engaged with the positioning structures 12 of the housing 1 respectively, and each of the positioning members 22 has a surface abutting against and sliding on the slanted surface of each of the positioning structures 12, as shown in FIG. 3. Moreover, the positioning surfaces 12 a located at the two ends of the slanted surface of each of the positioning structures 12 can be used to position and define the opening and closing of the cover 2.

Since the guiding-slot shaped first sliding members 11 and the slide-rail shaped second sliding members 21 are integrally formed with the housing 1 and the cover 2 respectively, there is no need to use an additional third structure (such as the slide member in the prior art) for assembling the housing 1 and the cover 2, such that a trouble in assembly is eliminated, the structure can be simplified, and the fabrication cost can be reduced for the housing device in the present invention.

Moreover, the slanted-surface shaped positioning structures 12 and the protrusion shaped positioning members 22 are similarly integrally formed with the housing 1 and the cover 2 respectively, such that the trouble in assembly using an additional third structure is avoided. Accordingly, the housing device for a hand-held electronic product in the present invention can be easily assembled.

There is a sufficiently large contact area between the guiding-slot shaped first sliding members 11 of the housing 1 and the slide-rail shaped second sliding members 21 of the cover 2, so as to allow the cover 2 to smoothly slide back and forth. In addition, the protrusion shaped positioning members 22 of the cover 2 abut against the slanted surfaces of the positioning structures 12 of the housing 1. As shown in FIG. 5, the second sliding members 21 of the cover 2 suffer a downward pulling force F1, and the positioning members 22 of the cover 2 suffer an upward counterforce F2, wherein the downward force F1 and the upward force F2 are balanced. This thus allows the cover 2 to be stably secured to the housing 1, and avoids a shake or undesirably movement caused by an assembling gap, making the cover 2 able to smoothly slide.

Furthermore, the cover 2 is clamped to the housing 1 by means of the upward and downward forces applied to the positioning members 22 and the slide-rail shaped second sliding members 21 respectively, such that the cover 2 can freely slide and be positioned on the housing 1, and the positioning surfaces 12 a of the positioning structures 12 of the housing 1 define a sliding range of the cover 2. Consequently, the cover 2 can freely slide within the defined range instead of random sliding, which prevents a drawback of easy abrasion of a conventional positioning protrusion, and avoids a problem of faulty actuation of the electronic product caused by an unexpected movement of the cover that cannot be properly closed and positioned on the housing.

Alternatively, the first sliding member 11 of the housing 1 can be a slide rail, and the second sliding member 21 of the cover 2 can be a guiding slot, such that the slide rail of the housing 1 can slide within the guiding slot of the cover 2. This alternative embodiment can also provide stable opening and closing of the cover 2 with respect to the housing 1.

The invention has been described using exemplary preferred embodiments. However, it is to be understood that the scope of the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements. The scope of the claims, therefore, should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements. 

1. A housing device for a hand-held electronic product, comprising: a housing comprising a first sliding member formed on each of two lateral sides thereof, and at least one positioning structure formed on the housing; and a cover mounted to the housing, the cover comprising a second sliding member formed on each of two lateral sides thereof to cooperate with one of the first sliding members of the housing, and at least one positioning member formed on an inner face of the cover and engaged with the positioning structure of the housing, such that the cover is positioned and slide to an opening position and a closing position on the housing.
 2. The housing device of claim 1, wherein the first sliding member of the housing is a guiding slot.
 3. The housing device of claim 2, wherein the second sliding member of the cover is a slide rail.
 4. The housing device of claim 3, wherein the slide rail is engaged with the guiding slot.
 5. The housing device of claim 1, wherein the first sliding member of the housing is a slide rail.
 6. The housing device of claim 5, wherein the second sliding member of the cover is a guiding slot.
 7. The housing device of claim 6, wherein the slide rail is engaged with the guiding slot.
 8. The housing device of claim 1, wherein the positioning structure is a slanted surface formed at a corner of the housing, with two positioning surfaces being provided at two ends of the slanted surface respectively.
 9. The housing device of claim 8, wherein the positioning member of the cover is a protrusion.
 10. The housing device of claim 9, wherein the protrusion of the cover has a surface abutting against and sliding on the slanted surface of the housing, and the positioning surfaces of the slanted surface define the opening position and the closing position of the cover. 